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| Stubergh & "Charlie." From alvarezwax.com |
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Charlie poses for sculptress Katherine Stubergh during the filming of Modern Times, 1935
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"Chawley" sends Valentine greetings to you all!
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| Motion Picture, March 1917 |
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On this day in 1944...
Charlie was booked and fingerprinted for violation of the Mann Act and for plotting to deprive Joan Barry, his former protegé, of her constitutional rights. Clad in a yellow sweater, white coat with purple handkerchief, & brown pants, Charlie looked nervous and annoyed and at first refused to be fingerprinted with cameramen in the room, declaring, "I'm exercising my prerogative; if I do, it's under duress." Prints were eventually made of all ten of his fingers, a lengthy process which took twenty minutes. Afterward, he fumbled as he dipped his pen in ink to sign his arrest card. He emerged shaken and was lead quickly to the washroom. His attorney, Jerry Giesler, following him with a gasoline-soaked towel. As Charlie removed the ink from his fingers, Giesler told reporters: "He doesn't have anything to say." After the formalities, Charlie walked out of the building, past hundreds of curious onlookers & reporters. One elderly woman turned to her companion and said audibly: "The rat!" Charlie ignored her, proceeded to his car, and drove away with his attorney.
Charlie was eventually acquitted of the charges in April, 1944.
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A NIGHT OUT, released February 15th, 1915
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Happy Birthday, Claire Bloom
Below, Claire talks about working with Charlie at a 60th anniversary screening of Limelight in Oct. 2012 (Norman Lloyd was also present at this event. A link should come up for his talk about halfway through Claire's. If not, click here to watch. It is not to be missed.)
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"Charlie Chaplin Minus the Make-up"
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| Film Fun, January 1919 |
The star of A Dog's Life, "Scraps" (real name: "Mut") stayed on as a pet as well and became very attached to Charlie. In April 1918, while Charlie was away on a Liberty Loan tour, the dog passed away, apparently from "a broken heart." He was buried on the studio grounds.
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Charlie dressed as Napoleon at a costume party given by William Randolph Hearst, 1925
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c. 1940
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"A Charlie Chaplin the world has yet to know"
Outtake from The Cure (Unknown Chaplin)
He and his wife [Mildred Harris] had entertained a few friends, and after dinner we adjourned to the music-room, with its quiet, intimate atmosphere of shaded lights.
In one corner stood a magnificent concert grand. Charlie loves music. It seems to be the natural outlet for his restless, eager spirit, and whenever I have seen him in that room, sooner or later he invariably responds to the lure of the instrument.
On this particular evening he sat there for nearly an hour, playing snatches from “Butterfly,” “Carmen” and the “ Valse Triste,” improvising sad, wistful little melodies of his own, and trying some new records on the pianola.
“And this is my favourite,” he said, having after a long search at last discovered one he particularly wanted to try.
I glanced at the title. It was the celebrated theme with variations from one of Haydn’s string quartettes, the melody to which we English have learnt to sing the hymn, “Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore Him.”
“I remember I used to think it the most beautiful thing on earth when I sang it as a little boy at Sunday school,” Charlie said. “But now it seems wonderful things to me. I seem to see a whole Russian army on a great wide plain, thousands and thousands of them as far as the eye can reach. They are all kneeling in prayer, and the priest passes slowly down their ranks and blesses them with the sacred icon in his hands.”
And as I watched him lose himself and all sense of his surroundings in the beauty of that music, I realised that this was a Charlie Chaplin the world has yet to know. (Pictures & Picturegoer, Oct. 1919)
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Pregnant Lita Grey Chaplin at Summit Drive, c. January 1925
Rumors were swirling at this time that Charlie and Lita were already having marital problems. Since their shotgun wedding the previous November, the couple had not yet been seen together in public. Hollywood gossips believed that Charlie had moved back into the Los Angeles Athletic Club while Lita and her mother occupied his home.
Although Charlie had not actually moved out, he was not spending much time at home either. After long days at the studio, he was often seen eating dinner at a restaurant with one or two of his associates. But Lita didn't just sit at home crocheting baby booties, one evening she was spotted dancing the night away with a "good looking youth" at a nightclub ("mommer" chaperoning, of course.)*
In keeping with his M.O., Charlie avoided interviews about his private life. Lita's only comment was that she rarely saw her husband because he worked late & that it would be lonely in the house if it weren't for her mother. She also said that she and Charlie hoped the baby was a girl, but if it were a boy, he would be named Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr.
*Chicago Tribune, Jan. 18th, 1925
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Charlie poses in costume at the Chaplin Studios, c. 1918
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With a visitor on the set of THE ADVENTURER, 1917
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Charlie arrives in Plymouth, England, Feb. 19th, 1931
Over the next weeks/months, I am going to try to post chronologically (as much as possible) about Charlie's 1931-32 world tour. I will post about other things as well, but I have a lot of material relating to this time of his life that I'd like to share.
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London, Feb. 19th, 1931
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| Charlie arrived in London by train and was greeted by thousands of well-wishers who were anxious to catch a glimpse of their native son. |
"Why is it that London always wrings my heart? Is it the love of my people? They are my people, these Cockneys. I am one of them. As I look into their faces I see that spiritual hunger, that inner craving. Their emotions have made them inarticulate. They are only expressed by the eager clutching of my sleeve. How little must come into their lives! How appreciative they are for the trivial thing that I've done." ("A Comedian Sees The World, Part I," A Woman's Home Companion, September 1933)
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"It might be the head of a criminal, mightn't it?"
British sculptress Clare Sheridan (cousin of Winston Churchill) spent three days at Chaplin’s home in November 1921 working on a bust of him.
She insisted during this time that he wear a robe, not only because she wanted him to be bare-throated, but because "a man in his dressing gown does not suddenly get a notion to order his motor car and go off to someplace."
Upon reviewing the finished bust for the first time, Charlie exclaimed, “It might be the head of a criminal, mightn’t it?” He explained his reaction by noting the similarities between the mind of a criminal and that of an artist.
According to Chaplin biographer David Robinson, the bust is still on display at Chaplin’s final home in Switzerland.
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Charlie spends "a most delightful" day with British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, Feb. 21st, 1931
Villagers who had gathered outside the gate at Chequers (MacDonald's country home), talked of how they saw Charlie make the Prime Minister laugh by demonstrating his famous walk.
Charlie later told a reporter from The Observer that MacDonald played a little joke on him during his visit: "I happened to remark that I was very fond of book bindings. The Prime Minister pointed to a special shelf, and, with a twinkle in his eye, said, 'There are some very beautiful bindings there, have a look at them.' I went to the shelf and found they were imitation bindings masking the panel of a door. And thus the Prime Minister played on me a capital little joke."
Despite this seemingly pleasant day, Charlie grew to dislike the Prime Minister because of his political views, and a month later refused an invitation to a dinner MacDonald had arranged in his honor at the House of Commons.
*The Observer, Feb. 22nd, 1931
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Real Photo Postcard, c. 1916
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Photo and caption from Liberty magazine, 1947
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THE CIRCUS (1928)
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